


All Of These Little Things That Happen, They're The Same

by inmylife



Series: mall au [7]
Category: Pentagon (Korea Band), Triple H (Korea Band)
Genre: Anxiety, M/M, Plants, protective mother hyuna
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-05-20 19:39:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14900736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inmylife/pseuds/inmylife
Summary: hair: doneconfidence: readyuwus: out[hui is forcibly removed from the primex]





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> title from ptg's like this

Hui really didn't mean to make him cry. Except he doesn't know how to explain this to Hyuna because she's very scary and also could possibly fire him and she is  _ very in his face right now. _

 

Record scratch. Rewind. 

 

Hui walks into Primex two hours ago. Hui is not the sort of person who goes into Primex, mostly because it's on the other side of the mall and he only knows Hongseok and that's only through Shinwon anyway and also because he just can't keep plants alive? But Yan An had decided he wanted succulents for the apartment, so succulents Yan An would get. 

 

"Hi," Hui says, to the only person at the counter - a boy, around his height, with bleached hair and visible tattoos, carrying a large plant. He's beautiful, thinks Hui, as the boy turns around. 

 

"H-hi," says the person. "How can I help you?"

 

Hui makes a spur of the moment decision. "You could get me your number." He winks. The succulents can wait. 

 

The other man drops the plant, presumably out of shock. The pot shatters on the floor -  _ oh shit _ , thinks Hui - and he freezes, his hands still outstretched like the pot's still there. Hui can see his chest starting to heave even from ten feet away. 

 

Two people, a very short girl and Hongseok, run out of the back room, probably attracted by the noise. The very short girl surveys the situation, then puts her hands at the small of Hui's back and roughly steers him out of the store. 

 

When Hui looks back, the short girl is glaring, and the pretty man is trembling as Hongseok tries to calm him down. 

 

And now Hui's here, in his own store. Hyuna stormed in five minutes ago demanding to know what Hui did to Hyojong, and Hui was very confused, because he does not know anyone named Hyojong. 

 

"He works in Primex?" Hyuna had said dangerously, and that's when it all clicked for Hui. "If you did anything to hurt him, Hwitaek, I will burn your eyebrows off I swear -"

 

"I just asked for his number!" Hui yells. Soobin is starting to look worried. Kenta and Hayoung are laughing at him, crazy kids. "I didn't know he was going to drop the plant!" 

 

Hyuna huffs and shoves Hui back against the wall. She gives him one last glare as she walks out. 


	2. chapter 1

"You're going to apologize to him, right?" Seunghee raises one sceptical eyebrow at Hui, a skill Hui has regrettably never learned. 

 

"To who," asks Hui absently, mostly because a new box from Earthsongs arrived that morning and it's Hui's job to catalogue it all and stick barcodes onto the back of each copy of  _ Pengyou, Ting! _ . 

 

"That oppa that Hyuna unnie came in and yelled at you about. From the plant store," Seunghee elaborates. She takes a box opener and cuts open another box from Earthsongs. "Also, pull up Adventures In Color on the spreadsheet, please. We got the Red edition." 

 

"Hayoung!" Hui shouts for their newest employee. It's like freshman hazing - the newbies don't get to do the fun stuff. "Come back here with your laptop, we're going to give you stuff to do in Excel! Also, Seunghee," he says, turning to his coworker, "will you get off my case? I've already been avoiding Hongseok all week because he won't stop nagging me about it. I barely even know him but now I have to avoid him."

 

"That just proves I'm right," says Seunghee airily. "Let's see if Hayoungie agrees with me. Hayoung!" she exclaims as the younger girl walks in, warily, laptop in hand. "Do you think Hui oppa should apologize to the oppa from the plant store?"

 

"Yeah," nods Hayoung. "If you made someone cry you have to say you're sorry. Unless they deserved it. And I don't think that plant store oppa deserved it." 

 

"But if I go near him again Hyuna noona will banish me to the ninth circle of hell," mumbles Hui. 

 

"It really might help your case if you apologize," Seunghee wheedles. 

 

"Yeah, and if you go you might find a way to get his number, nicely," adds Hayoung. 

 

"Fine." Hui sighs. 

 

"You're impossible," Seunghee informs him. "Hayoung, I need you to open the inventory spreadsheet." 

 

-

 

Hui isn't even safe in his own home, it seems. 

 

"Hyung!" Yan An continues hammering down Hui's door. "Hui hyung!" 

 

"What," Hui hollers in response. 

 

"Hongseok hyung is at the door," Yan An says. "He wants to talk to you." 

 

"Tell him I'm not home," Hui says wildly. 

 

"He says he's not home," Yan An shouts, presumably to Hongseok, who is probably in their living room or something. As if that could have ever worked, because Yan An is a little shit. 

 

"Fine - I'm coming - Yan An, just -" Hui shoves his door open. Yes, Hongseok is in their living room. "Listen, I don't need any more haranguing, my coworkers already took me to task, it is nine at night Hongseok I swear I will apologize to Hyojong now please get out of my apartment!" 

 

Hongseok blinks. "I was just going to ask you if you had Throat Coat," he says. "Jinho hyung has an audition. But as Hyojong is my other roommate, I'll be sure to warn him. Don't scare him this time. Or I will tell on you to Hyuna noona and she'll cut off your fingers."

 

"Yes, I have Throat Coat," Hui responds blankly. "Hyuna noona is very scary." 

 

Hongseok nods sagely. "Yes indeed." 

 

Hui fetches the Throat Coat and Hongseok leaves. Once the door shuts, Yan An and Changgu give each other devilish looks, before Yan An says, "They were roommates."

 

"Oh my god, they were roommates," Changgu answers, before the both of them dissolve into giggles. 

 

Hui lives with a pair of thirteen year olds, honestly. He makes sure to slam the door extra hard when he goes back into his room. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is gonna end up being a bunch of short chapters, it looks like! i wrote up to here, stared at it for a couple hours, and then decided "eh let's post it"
> 
> also hui works at a sheet music store and earthsongs is a music publishing company


	3. chapter 2

Hui is understandably nervous when he walks into the Primex the next day, mostly because if he screws this up Hyuna will probably rip out his tongue with pliers or something equally unpleasant. And because he really does not want to make Hyojong cry. 

 

It's a nice name he has. Hyojong. Vowels equal and symmetrical, a name lending itself perfectly to aegyo-embellished nicknames like "Hyojongie" or "Hyojong-ah", the ending consonant perfect for making any use of the name sound cute. A name fitting for a shy guy who works with plants for a living. 

 

Hui isn't very fond of his name. That's why he goes by Hui instead of Hwitaek. 

 

Hyojong is sitting criss-cross-applesauce on a rotating metal stool - an old one, that creaks as Hyojong idly swivels right, then left - when Hui comes in. He looks up, notices Hui, and flinches. Hard. 

 

"Sorry," Hui says, a little on edge because damn this guy is really jumpy. 

 

"No - I'm sorry," says Hyojong. He takes a moment to make eye contact, but his voice sounds stabler than it had the other day. "I'm not usually this… you know." He looks down. "I mean I know Hongseok warned me, but…" 

 

"It's fine," Hui interrupts quickly, because one of the things about being friends with Shinwon is that you pick up on when someone is about to spiral into anxiety, and Hyojong definitely seems on the verge. "I'm the one who's supposed to be apologizing. Which brings me to the actual apology. I'm sorry for flirting with you because it was clearly unwelcome, and I wasn't intending to upset you." 

 

Hyojong mumbles something that Hui really wants to hear as "it wasn't  _ that _ unwelcome" but he can't be sure. "Did noona yell at you?" Hyojong asks, louder. 

 

"Yes," Hui answers. "Please tell her that I apologized." 

 

Hyojong gets this weird, nervous look for a second before he tells Hui, "I'm not your servant, tell her yourself." 

 

Hui nods. "Fair point."

 

"Also, she's really not that scary," Hyojong adds, shifting in the stool a little bit and moving so that he's partially hidden by some succulents on the counter. "She's like - do you know the movie Monster Hunt?"

 

Hui blinks. "No?"

 

"Well, google a Huba. She's like that - cute and harmless. Noona, and also this hyung from Primark."

 

"Aren't we in a Primark?" 

 

"This is a Primex," Hyojong clarifies. "Primark is a clothes store. A big one. I think it's new." 

 

Hui nods. It's quiet for a moment. He notices Hyojong fidgeting with his hands - grabbing one set of fingers with the other hand, then switching, then switching again. The succulent doesn't hide him as much as Hui's guessing Hyojong wants it to. 

 

"If I asked you out, politely this time, are you still going to break anything?" 

"No," says Hyojong. 

 

"Do you want to get tea sometime? Even just as friends." Hui leans a bit so he can see over the succulent a little better. 

 

"Y-yeah, sure." 

 

Hui sees him smile. It's tentative, but it's there loud and clear, and that's enough to keep Hui smiling as he walks back to his own store. 

 

("So?" asks Seunghee, a smirk spreading onto her face as well. "How'd it go?"

 

"He didn't cry."

 

"Good." Seunghee nods satisfactorily. 

 

"And we're going for tea on Wednesday."

 

"That Song Hayoung is a smart girl.")

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -zhu xingjie does indeed work in primark. and for your enjoyment pleasure, xiao gui works in the plant store. he'll show up later. i don't know how much of a huba hyuna is, but i needed something cute and unintimidating for dawnie to compare her to, and i've been watching that video of justin imitating xingjie like all day, so... that happened.  
> -(also the idea of dawnie - preferably debut era brunette dawnie - wrapped in a blanket and watching kids movies is really fucking cute idk hes adorable)  
> -sorry about hyojong's personality i feel like i kept going back and forth between nervous and normal during this chapter which is weird because i actually have anxiety/social anxiety so i SHOULD know how to write him its just not working :///  
> -oh my girl's seunghee is so beautiful and cute and that's why she's my go-to coworker to reference when hui is in the music store


	4. chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so apparently my update schedule is "update three days in a row and then forget about it for two weeks"

"It's tea day!" 

 

Hui blinks open. He looks first to his alarm clock - he isn't supposed to be awake for another thirty minutes  _ why _ is he awake - and then in the other direction, to the voice that is still yelling "it's tea day!". 

 

It's Yan An. He's been woken up at six thirty in the morning by fucking Yan An over a tea meeting that was strictly platonic (as he had assured Hyuna when she had come to have a friendly chat with him bearing a very large fork probably borrowed from Williams Sonoma). 

 

"Yan An, please get the hell out of my bedroom." Yan An scowls. Hui throws a pillow at him. He leaves. 

 

Hui falls asleep and wakes up half an hour later to his alarm blaring Shinee's Ring Ding Dong. Now, it's a very good song, but Hui has a distinct and unrivaled hatred for the song since setting it as his alarm three years ago. He yanks his phone off the docker and silences it, then flops back onto his bed and stares at the ceiling. 

 

He's nervous. Course he's nervous, mainly because Hyuna had threatened to essentially give him a sunburn where the sun don't shine if he hurt Hyojong in any way. But also, well… Hyojong is a cute boy. Hui gets flustered around cute boys. 

 

Shinwon does not get flustered around cute boys. Shinwon, despite being generally unconfident about most everything, is what Wooseok likes to call a "confident gay". (See? Hui's hip with the kids. He even understands Wooseok's dumb slang. He laughs at this.) Therefore, Hui calls Shinwon. 

 

"Hyung? Hui hyung?" 

 

"Shinwon. Hi."

 

"Hyung, you sound nervous." 

 

"That's because I am. Shinwon, I have a question for you." He hears Shinwon take a deep breath on the other end of the line. "It's not a scary kind of question. It's about dating." He whispers that last bit, in case Yan An and Changgu are listening outside his door. 

 

Shinwon exhales. "Oh." 

 

"Well. Has Hongseok told you about this boy who works at his plants store?"

 

Shinwon makes a noise on the other end that Hui thinks may be a laugh. The phone signal in his apartment is terrible, though, so it might just be static. "You mean Hyojong hyung?"

 

"Yes," Hui answers emphatically. 

 

"Hui hyung, he lives with me. He's me and the hyungs' other roommate."

 

Shit. Hui's stomach drops out from under him, and he feels a bit stupid. 

 

"Hongseok told me this."

 

"I bet he did." Shinwon sighs. "Listen, all I'll tell you is don't touch him without asking first and if the Teavana gets too loud, leave. He's nervous too. Like in a normal, he-thinks-you're-cute kind of way. God knows why, hyung."

 

"Hey!" Hui exclaims. "I'm plenty cute." 

 

"Bye, hyung," Shinwon says, very loudly and purposefully, as though he is either exasperated with Hui or as though Hongseok had walked in and they are about to do something rather dirty for eight in the morning. Or possibly both. 

 

-

 

Today is Hui's day off, which is rare in and of itself because he is the general manager and he has to be around most days for the next few weeks to ensure Hayoung, as a fresh, green new hire, doesn't scare any customers away. (Although if anyone is really scaring customers away, it's probably Changkyun, because he just looks generally scary.) 

 

He savors his off days in the sense that he takes the time to look around the mall, really take in the customers in a sense. Of course, this also means he walks slower, which, of course, means that he's about five minutes late to the Teavana. Shit. Hyuna may shave him bald for this. 

 

"Hi!" he explodes into the Teavana, scaring a couple of hipster girls standing in front of the display. Hui looks around frantically before finally finding a nervous-looking Hyojong at a corner table, like he's hiding, almost. 

 

He starts to walk over there, but someone shorter than both of them rushes up and punches Hui hard in the arm. 

 

"Yes?" Hui asks, startled-sounding. 

 

"Hyung, don't  _ do _ that," mumbles Hyojong. "S'fine."

 

The short guy walks away, but not before giving Hyojong a squeeze on the shoulder Hui can only assume is reassuring. 

 

"What…?"

 

"My roommate," he explains, kicking the chair opposite him so Hui knows he's supposed to sit down. (Hui knew that anyway, and was just standing there like an idiot. He obliges Hyojong.) "He works here. I… got nervous," Hyojong says, looking down at his lap here, "because you were late - but it's alright, I'm not - it's not a big deal or anything, I -" 

 

"Hyojong," Hui says, his words walking over Hyojong's jumbled string of placations. "It's fine. You're fine. Finish your story?" 

 

He tries to sound as reassuring as possible. 

 

"He's just protective." Hyojong brushes it off. "Most of my friends are."

 

"Is Hyuna noona, like… the average? Or the extreme?" Hui cracks, and this is good, because it makes Hyojong laugh. He has a nice laugh. Hui wants to keep hearing it.

 

"The extreme, definitely the extreme. Jinho hyung likes to get physical but I don't think he'd try to set anyone on fire." 

 

Hui freezes. "She's done that?" 

 

"Threatened to." Hyojong shrugs. Hui's eyebrows decide to take a nice climb up past his bangs. Yeah, no, he's not crossing her. Not ever again. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhhhh does teavana have tables and shit where you can get served tea idk ive never been to one
> 
> i do work in a mall now though lol so this au will become more and more factually correct over the next 3 months
> 
> find me on twitter (missyehana) or tumblr (zhengkis) i always wanna talk to my readers! i love you all :)


	5. chapter 4

You know the feeling where you're drifting off to sleep but you're not quite there yet, just lying under your covers for no reason except maybe that it's cold, and your eyes are closed and you can feel your heartbeat calming down and you're just  _ so comfortable _ and you could fall asleep at any moment? Yeah, that's where Hui is until his phone starts fucking blaring. 

 

He's startled awake and now he has to suffer that surprised-awake feeling in his gut that you get whenever you hear the song that's set to your alarm out of context and it  _ sucks _ , but he answers his phone. 

 

"Oh my god, Changgu,  _ what, _ I was sleeping!"

 

"Hi hyung!" answers Changgu cheerily, unaware (or ignoring) now much Hui hates him right now. "I'm on my way back from work and I just wanted to ask you how your date went!"

 

"First of all, Changgu, it wasn't a fucking date." Hui is quick to correct this because both Hyojong and Hyuna had seemed more at ease when he'd assured them that their little tea meetup was entirely platonic in nature. "Secondly, why couldn't this wait until you got home?" 

 

"Because I knew you'd be fucking napping like the old man you are," Changgu responds. Cheeky sonofa. The fact that he's right makes Hui a lot more annoyed. "Now, hyung. Details." 

 

Hui sighs heavily. "I mean… it was fine."

 

"Nobody cried?"

 

"Fuck you, Changgu. No." 

 

"Has Hyuna noona come to eviscerate you yet?"

 

"God, Changgu, no!" Hui shouts into the phone. "Oh my god if you're going to make fun of me at least come home first!" 

 

Heavy breathing from the other end. He shouldn't have yelled; shit. 

 

"Sorry, Changgu," he murmurs finally. "I'll make dinner." 

 

As if by some mutual agreement, Changgu hangs up just as Hui's about to. 

 

The truth is - Hui had a really good time. He had done most of the talking, but somehow that was okay - he didn't doubt that Hyojong was listening, and Hyojong said something whenever he had something to say. At least Hui thought so - hoped so. They'd only really talked about mundane, random things - their jobs, Hongseok and Shinwon, how their tea tasted. It was a quiet day - it was 1pm on a Wednesday - so there weren't a ton of people in the store except a couple college-age girls and the people who actually worked there. The only unnerving thing was Hyojong's roommate Jinho being the one to bring them their tea and check on them and everything, because he clearly did not trust Hui at all, which was… awkward, to say the least. But it was fun. Hui had fun, and he'd gotten Hyojong's number out of it too. 

 

Speaking of which… 

 

**Me:** hey it was nice earlier! What wld you say abt going for tea again sometime?

**Me:** i promise i'll pay again :)

 

**Hyojong:** haha free tea is nice

**Hyojong:** it was fun though thank you hyung

**Hyojong:** im sorry about jinho hyung by the way hes just always like that 

 

**Me:** he wasn't nearly as bad as hyuna noona lol so it's like fine

 

Okay, so. They'll set up another tea day sometime. This is good. Hui might scavenge a full-fledged friendship out of this.

 

(Of course, that's not what he wants, but it's what he's going to get, so there's no point in deluding himself.)

 

So Hui sighs, and gets out of bed, and starts making fried rice for himself and Changgu.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not quite sure what this is but u know... here i guess
> 
> find me on tumblr (zhengkis) and twitter (missyehana)


	6. interlude [[READ END NOTES]]

"What's up, kiddo?"

"I don't know, I... there's this boy. He's older. And he's... pretty. Not in the way people think, but he's really - nice to look at. And sweet, and caring - and talented, god.

But I'm just... just not sure if he sees me." __

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i guess i don't know what to do with this, now that E'dawn and Hyuna are confirmed to be dating and that Hui and Soojin were involved. it feels dishonest to continue writing this the way i planned it, but at the same time this fic has gotten the most traffic out of almost everything i've written... so i guess what should i do, should i rewrite it so it's friendship and not romance? should i swap out hyuna's and hui's roles in dawn's life here? should i get rid of the rest of triple h entirely and toss soojin in there? should i discontinue it?   
> the prospect of writing ship fic is a little uncomfortable to me right now because it's a reminder, you know, that idols are people and at the end of the day most of what i write isn't anything, and there's a part of me that wants to be dramatic and stop writing fic entirely (except for stuff like we are the girls that dream which isn't ship-like). but i'm always going to be having these ideas and there's something about writing fic that comes so much easier to me than writing original works. so i guess i'm just kind of stuck because i can't think about aus for other ships even right now without feeling a little uncomfortable but at the same time i love what i do.   
> tl;dr tell me what to do with this, because i just don't know.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to kira for the summary <3
> 
> can't promise a regular update schedule on this one, i have the pd101 remake on a schedule and there's another fic i've been sitting on for a while, but this one will be completed i promise
> 
> it will also deal w some heavier stuff than the mall usually does!! still the fluff that characterizes this au but just be warned it gets sad later on. i'll be updating the tags as we go so be sure to check every so often
> 
> it's my first chaptered fic in this au! yay! *streamers*


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